Invest, invest, invest in Gary and in Gary Works.

Dorreen Carey joined U.S. Steel in 1976 under a new consent decree that opened the trades to women, and she was one of many pushed out in the 1983 layoffs a few years later. In her seven years there, she saw both sides of what the mill offered: real opportunity, and real danger. She still carries the memory of a blast furnace carbon monoxide leak that killed 6 steelworkers at a mill in East Chicago

Today, she's the volunteer president of Gary Advocates for Responsible Development, which she co-founded in 2021 to fight off a proposed trash-to-fuel plant on the Lake Michigan shoreline. After that win, GARD has taken on polluters targeting Gary as a dumping ground and pushed for sustainable development instead. 

Her ask of U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel doesn't stop at money: "Invest in the future of Gary, invest in Gary Works. Modernize. Continue to do the cleanup, and be a better neighbor to the city.”

Photos: Tyrell Anderson / Decay Devils